Project Fiona - The Dream Come True

The gamers can feel the excitement regarding this breakthrough. Razer, the well-recognized and leading brand in gaming hardware will release The Project Fiona on final quarter in 2012. What is The Project Fiona? It is gaming tablet PC which will surpass the limitation of playing games in tablet PC. This hardware will answer the expectation from all gamers around the globe.

As they have announced their project in CES (Consumer Electronic Association) 2012 in Las Vegas, U.S.A. Project Fiona got The People’s Choice Awards. However, Razer coupled Microsoft as their partner in developing this hardware. For processor, it will use high end processor, Intel Core 7. For processor, it will use high end processor third generation, Ivybridge, Intel Core 7.

With excellent interface, it will be built in 10.1 inch touch screen with resolution of 1280 x 800 pixel like common tablet PC. It will be operated using Windows 8 as the OS. To enhance the gaming function, it will be supported by integrated dual controller including ultra precision thumbstick analogue, top buttons, 3-axis gyro, magnetometer, accelerometer, triggers and forcer feedback. For sounds, it will use THX-certified Dolby 7.0 Home Theater which will “rock on” the user and feel the real gaming experience! To enabling online and network games, it also attached with WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and bluetooth 3.0 for data transfer.

Project Fiona

This product will target only on niche segment. This segment is simply still unexploited and can be the cash cow for Razer to expand their business more. Project Fiona is specialized for gamers and become the first mover in its type. As many of limitation and dissatisfied of game lover, this stuff might be their pain reliever. It have certain purpose and market segment, Project Fione is predicted to penetrate easily into the market. Moreover this market can be categorized as blue ocean which the competitors like Samsung and Apple havg not entered yet!

Like ancient words “no pain no gain”. Razer took years in developing Project Fiona. Its R&D budget also had been estimated reached millions dollar. Yet, this “pain” will get the “gain” for sure! Some expert predicted that Project Fiona will get great response from its user which mostly are gamers. Razer also has big opportunity to invite a lot of game developers to participate in their project. Finally their investment will reach on break even point in just 3 years.

As the inventor and also developer, Razer believes that The Project Fiona will break the boundaries between Tablet PC and gaming purpose. This project is designed with considering human factors like user ergonomic research. This hardware in its development also been tested by top gamers who knows well how the perfect game console is look like.

Razer planned to release The Project Fiona on the fourth quarter of 2012 with around US$ 1000 for its price. The price is fair enough as consider from the feature and technology offered. This game console is specially designed for gamers whom want to get real gaming experience using Tablet PC. Razer‘s Project Fiona such like treasure which desired by all gamers around the world and finally their dream come true.

Top 5 MapleStory Private Servers List

MapleStory is a great MMORPG indeed. Playing in MapleStory private servers will maximize your fun and experience because it rids problems like excessively high number of online players that bore us out. Hackers are sitting on every corner of the official server in the game too. Sometimes, you feel the insecurity when playing MapleStory. Hackers are trying to snatch your years of hard work away from you, noobs are ruining your daily fun plans, and overpowered players kill the fun out of the game. Instead of getting frustrated, try the MapleStory private servers.

In the MapleStory private servers, you can find less player compared to official servers, but not too quiet. It is crowded enough to be fun. There are also status edits like increasing rates of drops, experiences, and mesos. Alternatively, private server can act as your therapy server from the dangerous and rough life of the official servers. I will make sure the list below contains best of the best private servers that give you the most secure service and protection also game edits and tweaks that will surely boost your fun meter and deplete your stress level:

Top 5 MapleStory Private Servers

Intrinsic Networks Private Servers
Intrinsic Networks is currently hosting two private servers just for you. The two servers are ArcaneMS and CrypticSEA. I guarantee you that the servers are handled professionally that you won’t feel any difference between the official servers and Intrinsic Networks’ servers except for the fun that the server gives more.

The CrypticSEA server offers you MapleSEA game with improvements here and there. The rates are as written below:

• Mesos  = 20X
• Exp = 20X
• Drop = 5X

Those rates will keep you occupied for sometimes and it is not too high to make your playthroughs end so quickly. The CrypticSEA server also includes different PvP system. There are also the Profession and Maker system. Intrinsic Networks work hard that the server it hosted also brings new custom quests not found in the official server. To know the basics, when you enter the CrypticSEA, use the @help. There are hundreds of player in this private server.

On the other hand, Intrinsic Networks ArcaneMS is one of the most popular and well-administered MapleStory private servers. There are nearly 1000 players online everyday. The rates are 12X exp, 12X mesos, and 3X drops. There is a minimum number of hackers and stricter admins that keep the game playable and un-exploited.

RydahReborn
This MapleStory private servers put its rates first as one of the attraction points. Rates:

• Exp = 1000X
• Mesos = 250X
• Drops = 3X

The server is quite quiet, there are less than fifty people online in the game via the server now. Nevertheless, there are awesome features of this server:

• Tetris system
• New commands
• Customized rare drops
• Sparkling new strong bosses
• All-in-one shop

ForestStory
This private server also has extreme rates. Exp rate at 1200X, Mesos rate at 600X, and drop rates at 10X! To level up to level 200, you won’t need two years of non-stop grinding, you can reach it in only about a day full of grinding.

ForestStory support is great, fast responses. There are also daily events and player ranking system. To keep this awesome private server, donation is required. However, donators get extra unique gifts as a way of showing gratitude. Usually, there is about a hundred players online in a time.

ForeverMS
ForeverMS does not have extraordinary rates, but it has exceptional exclusive features like:

• Semi All-In-One shop
• Custom items
• FM Mobs
• Daily and Seasonal Events
• Unlimited Buff
• Lag-free server

This MapleStory private server is not really popular though. There are less than 100 players in the server.

D.ChaosMS
The name is cool just like the official website. Exp and Meso Rate are more insane compared to other private servers. The drop rate is not very different though, which is at 5X. Exp rate at 2000X, Mesos rate at 1000X.

Quite popular, about hundreds of player online everyday. It is interesting because there are custom new bosses and quests.

So, which MapleStory private server do you want to play in?

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - Survive the Triple Threat!

The long awaited spin-off game of the successful Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is dated to release in the next two months. Different from other Resident Evil games, Operation Raccoon City adopts the third-person shooter genre with run-and-gun feature and also a 4 players co-op mode. Actually, it is inspired from Lost Planet 2 that I think is a perfect co-op game that lacks the story and competitive multiplayer. Let’s hope that the Developer of the SOCOM series, Slant Six Games, can creatively develop the game to its best quality.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is definitely not a survival horror game that pumps our adrenaline with scares. Capcom trusts Slant Six Games to create a never-before-seen Resident Evil, getting out of the safe zone to try something new. The game focuses on teamwork and co-op mode with six characters to choose from and each having their unique signature specialities. The game itself has been announced since nearly one and a half years ago when Slant Six Games wrote that they are working on an amazing large-scale project of a legendary franchise. For now, we have already got glimpses on how the game is going to be from demos and trailers.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Buy it now on Amazon

It is 1998, the year when it all began. T-Virus are spreading in Raccoon City from the infamous Spencer’s Mansion. Dead people are turning zombies and law-abiding citizens become evil residents. It happens in the same timeframe as Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Outbreak. We don’t play as the hero that saves the day nor survivor that is struggling to survive, instead, we play the baddies. Players take the role of Umbrella Security Service team’s officer. In this situation, the outbreak is what Umbrella fear the least. The team is paid to clean the mess that Umbrella left along with dirty works. Umbrella is afraid of the government finding the evidences and proofs that direct to Umbrella regarding the Raccoon City outbreak issue. Variety of objectives are issued, such as destroying evidences, collecting resources, and slaughtering living people including civilians and RPD officers to cover the evidences up. Since this is a spin-off game, there will be impossible storyline that can happen. You can even choose to kill Leon S. Kennedy. The what-if-I-do-this option draw my curiosity out.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - Triple Threat

The latest trailer of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is called “Triple Threat”. Just like the name, three different groups are fighting each other for their own objectives in the trailer video. The Umbrella Security Service, Spec Ops, and zombie hordes. “Triple Threat” trailer shows six Spec Ops personnel entering Raccoon City after the outbreak to recover some data from the zombies and rescuing any living citizen. On the other side of the road, the USS is chasing two guys with the RPD uniform. After killing the poor police officers in front of the Spec Ops, gunfight happens between the two opposing groups. One of the USS officer throws a grenade that attracts zombie horde into the scene. The regular uncle zombie don’t stand a chance against them, but when Mister Tyrant comes, everything ends. The screen changes to the title after Tyrant threw a car to someone in the chaotic three-way gunfight.

What interests me the most is the co-op mode. I hope that the story and gameplay is as good as it looks now. There is also a mode called “Hero Mode” that enables “hero” characters to be played like Leon, Claire, Jill, and Carlos. Villains like Ada Wong and HUNK are available too. Don’t set your expectations over the average for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City since Slant Six Games often made and developed mediocre games. Since I am a fan of the franchise, I will buy it anyway!

2012’s Xbox Service Alert Issue

Xbox service alert happens every once in a while. Some users even have reported Xbox service alert to happen once a month. This month is the early month of the brand new year, 2012. Of course that we expect good changes, but Microsoft is giving us troubles just a few moments after the New Year’s Eve. Starting from January 1st, some users have felt the Xbox service alert notification, taking them away a step further from their online multiplayer experience. But at least, not everyone is feeling it.

The first time to happen is you cannot sign in to your Xbox LIVE account. When you check your internet connection, it is all fine, up and running smoothly. You can browse the net and watch HD Youtube as smooth as you have always been. But, the problem is you cannot sign in to the account. Panic rises, hacking rumors start, false bans are being gossipped or even gay employees accidentally turned off the server while maintaining the troll face  saying, “U mad bro?”.

Actually this error is just as mysterious and as random as PS3 DNS error. The PS3 connection error happens randomly when our connection is just fine, but we cannot sign in with any of our accounts. The solution ranges from resetting the PS3 and Internet to calling Sony’s official customer support or simply wait in patience.

Xbox Service Alert

When the Xbox service alert notification in your Xbox 360 shows up in the screen, you do not have to be worried. There are several causes regarding the notification. The most common one is server troubles and heavy traffic that often happens in weekends and holidays. The second one is maintenance. The third one is really rare reason, it is because your account has been hacked. For now, the possibility of getting your account hacked is so small, below one percent. This Xbox service alert notification is positively caused by Microsoft, there is no need to panic and start running around, frantically screaming. As seen in the official Xbox site, the Xbox LIVE account’s status says that users may have difficulties accessing messages in Xbox.com. Some people can’t log in the site, but still can play Xbox LIVE and others may experience the vice-versa. Now, what do you have to do in order to fix it and get back in some multiplayer action?

I emphasize once more, no need to panic and you have to stop panicking (if you are panicking). There are a couple of solutions I can give to you, though the successibility rate is not absolute:

• Restart your Xbox 360 and Internet connection for 30 seconds or more
• Phone the official customer support of Microsoft Xbox and ask for assistance
• Simply wait, sometimes, it will be over in a few hours

It has laughably the same solution as the mysterious PS3 connection error. Sometimes restarting works, and sometimes it does not. Usually, the customer support will only give you the same solution listed above. Don’t worry though, the Xbox service alert is currently being addressed and fixed by Microsoft as stated in the official website. All will be up and running again like normal in no time.

How to: Temple Run Glitch - Unlimited Straight Run

Recently, Temple Run has gained more fame than ever in the internet. This is really tied to Temple Run glitch. Temple Run was released a few months ago, on the 4th of August 2011. It is only available on iOS also IPod and IPad. Temple Run is a game about a man called Guy Dangerous, an Indiana Jones wannabe explorer that steals treasures from ancient temple and get trapped in crumbling temples because of it. Every character in Temple Run is doomed because sooner or later, every one of them will die. Like other iOS arcade games, there is no storyline, the objective is to attain the highest score possible. Your job is to lead Guy Dangerous or other defiled grave robbers to run from the crumbling temple and avoid obstacles as far as you can as well as staying alive. Temple Run is really popular now and people are starting to post their highscore on forums, websites, blogs, and even videos in Youtube. The truth is, not all of them are honest. Even though it has been through several updates to fix things up and currently is on version1.4.1, there is still an exploitable Temple Run Glitch.

The game is actually fun without the Temple Run glitch. You can play as Guy Dangerous or other six characters that can be unlocked by paying a certain amount of coins. Coins are earned in the game. As you are running the temple, you can grab coins and power-ups. If you are some crazily rich guy or won’t be bothered by spending your hard-earned money for virtual money, you can purchase the 20,000 coins for twenty bucks. Yeah, really worth it.

The coins are used for buying items and contents such as characters, power-up upgrades, and utilities. When you are running the temple, you will also find that utilities are useful. Utilities can be used once any time in the game, it is like your initial inventory and you can pre-choose it. Power-ups, on the other hand, have to be acquired while running and it is temporary, meaning, it will disappear after usage or after your character dies.

The Temple Run glitch will allow Guy Dangerous’s way to be straighter than ever, I meant absolutely straight. You will not need to dodge obstacles, no effort needed, lie back as Guy Dangerous run straight through freely forever and after. Well, at least until you decide that he should stop. Step-by-step instructions below:

Temple Run Glitch

Enter the title screen
Of course, this is ridiculously obvious.

Open the Option
Click or tap the option menu in the title screen.

Turn on Tutorial Mode
Turn it on in the option. Any other options are not related and won’t give any effect.

Start the Game
Now, get running with your favorite character. There will be a tutorial on how to turn on your screen. Note that this is essential.

Turn Right with Two Lightning Speed Sweeps
When you approach your first right turn, instead of sweeping once to turn, double-sweep as fast as you can.

Voila!

If you do it right and fast enough, the glitch will be activated. You will know that it is successful if the camera turns around and your character runs non-stop in a straight pathway. If not, just quit to the title screen and start another game.

There are also consequences when using the glitch. First, there won’t be any coins, the only way to get coins is from mega coins. If you are lucky. There will be power-ups in the game, otherwise. It is not that bad. Don’t worry because this Temple Run glitch won’t affect anything other than the scores. If you are sick seeing your character running non-stop, crash him to one of the sides. With the unlimited score Temple Run glitch, you can boast your impossible high score on your friends. Boasting in the internet is useless though because a lot of people have already known this Temple Run glitch.

Wreak Novelty Havoc and Chaos with Wabbajack Skyrim

Wabbajack Skyrim is simply awesome and beyond godlike. It is one of Daedric artifacts available in the game. It is strong, relentless, and supports novelty. In the game, you can find a book titled “Wabbajack”, containing the lore and legends of Wabbajack. It is a long, dark-colored staff with face expressions as its head. Actually, the face on the head of the staff is based on the face of the Daedric Prince of Madness, Sheogerath, the one that gives the Wabbajack Skyrim to the Dragonborn in a quest called “The Mind of Madness”. Even though it is a Daedric artifact weapon, uses can absorb Wabbajack Skyrim’s effect and it is rechargeable just like enchanted weapons. You can shoot the charges 200 times before needing to recharge it.

For your info, you can find “The Mind of Madness” quest on Solitude. Talk to the mad beggar named Dervenin found at the streets around Bards College. He will ask you to return his master to his duties and he will give you the hipbone of Pelagius. His master is located in Pelagius wing of Blue Palace. Enter the palace by either forcing the steward after completing the quest “The Man Who Cried Wolf” or pickpocketing one of the cleaning staffs. If you have high speech skill, you can rather intimidate her to get the key. Just proceed through the Pelagius wing until you are force-travelled to a strange place. In the strange place, you automatically wear fine clothes. The place is a wood and a big dinner is held on the center of it with two men sitting at the table. The depressed man is Pelagius III and the other one is Mr. Sheogorath, the Mad Daedric Prince. He is the beggar’s master. Before returning, he will require you to escape from Pelagius’ Mind, the place where you are now. Sheogorath will give you the Wabbajack to easen your quest. You will enter three scenarios and you have to solve it with the Wabbajack Skyrim only. After completing all scenarios, talk to Sheogorath and he will ask you to keep the Wabbajack Skyrim.

Wabbajack Skyrim’s effect is exactly like the lore. It is strong and powerful, very well-suited for battles against strong opponents like Dragon Priests and Dragons. It is true that the Wabbajack can tackle and slay a dragon in not more than 7 hits. On the other hand, Wabbajack Skyrim is well-known for its random effects. When you shoot the magical projectile from the Wabbajack and it hits the opponent, there will be a flash of light and after that the random effect happens. The effects range from overpoweringly strong elemental attacks, Daedra summonings, and ridiculously novelty transformations. The use of the Wabbajack Skyrim, Sheogorath’s boomstick, is clearly forbidden in towns and holds. Just note that Wabbajack does not only give you advantages over your enemy, sometimes, the legendary Daedric weapon can turn the tables on you and pits you in disadvantages. You can see the list of the random-occurring effects below:

Wabbajack Skyrim

Elemental Spells

• Fireball
• Thunderbolt
• Explosive Frost Rune
• Ice Spike

Transformations

• Bunny
• Dremora Lord
• Chicken
• Spectral
• Mudcrab
• Sweetroll
• Coin shower
• Gender change

Status, Spells

• Drain stamina
• Absorb health
• Invisibility
• Cloning
• Trips target
• Steal Armor
• Confusion
• Flee
• Instant Kill
• Heal
• Disintegrate

Summonings

• Dremora (fighting for target)
• Mudcrab
• Daedra Kyndroth

Those effects are only applicable to enemies other than dragons, story NPCs, and kids. Dragons and VIP NPCs only get the elemental spell effects. Just so you know, transforming enemies does not kill them. It only works as a temporary spell and the targets will retransform back in time or by hit. There are exceptions though, targets that transform into sweetrolls or coins don’t come back. There are several bugs that you have to know. Sometimes, instead of transforming guards to what they are destined to be, it will summon it next to the them. What important is, don’t use Wabbajack Skyrim on a Dremora Lord, the game will crash into nothingness.

Remember that Wabbajack Skyrim is not enough to protect you from taking an arrow in your knees.

Modern Warfare 3 Gameplay + Upcoming First DLC on Jan 24th

Modern Warfare 3 gameplay offers one of the best existing first-person shooter experience. The Modern Warfare 3 was released about two months ago in the same month with the release of the latest EA and DICE’s epic first-person shooter franchise, Battlefield 3. And the first downloadable content that includes two maps is available this January. Like what it predecessors always deliver, Modern Warfare 3 gameplay involves Hollywood-class singleplayer story plus fun and frantic multiplayer mode. Modern Warfare 3, the latest installment of the Modern Warfare series in the Call of Duty franchise, is now developed by three developers for the Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 version. Infinity Ward is helped by Sledgehammer Games and assisted by Raven Software to carefully craft this beautiful, state-of-the-art shooter. This game is released by Activision worldwide and Square Enix in Japan.

Modern Warfare 3 Gameplay

Just what to expect from MW 3 gameplay, it receives high review scores all over the internet in average of 9 out of 10, at least for the PC and console versions. Despite the great score that the console version had received from trustworthy reviewers, the 3DS version simply suck and it deserved the score of 6 out of 10 as a mediocre game. Nevertheless, other than describing the gameplay of this game, I will add news regarding Modern Warfare 3 upcoming first DLC, be sure to read to the end!

I am going to focus on the multiplayer gameplay instead of the singleplayer since the singleplayer is not really different from the previous ones aside from the new story and characters. There is a new co-op mode in the game that is called Survival mode. The mode’s system is similar to the zombies mode in both World at War and Black Ops, except the zombies. You can play with your friend for survival from unending waves of soldiers. You can earn cash to buy equipments and ammos, just like the zombie mode. The Special Ops mode is also back to emphasize the trademark or exclusive features in the Modern Warfare series.

Even though the competitive multiplayer is similar to its predecessors and has no huge improvement, it is still fun and exciting to play. Infinity Ward has removed things in the multiplayer mode to “balance” the game more. Infinity run perk and One-Man Army perk is deleted for the sake of righteousness. The instant prone position from the standing position is removed to reduce the lag and instability of the multiplayer game. One of the most notable update is the killstreak system. Instead of being called killstreak, it is called pointstreak now. You can earn streak not only from kills, but also from points earned by completing objectives like capturing flag, planting bomb, et cetera.

There are also two new game modes in the multiplayer Modern Warfare 3 gameplay called Kill Confirmed and Team Defender. Kill Confirmed is similar to Team Deathmatch with new feature. Your kills don’t count before you take the enemy’s dogtag on the dead body. Enemy team can take the dog tag to deny your kill. Team Defender pits two teams fighting over a flag dropped by the First Blood victim. Score points by killing. The team that holds the flag gets double points.

Now it is time for the downloadable content news! Instead of being called downloadable contents, they are called “content drops”. Activision will drop the contents first for Elite members in Xbox LIVE and continuing to other platforms’ Elite subscribers. The contents include 2 maps called “Piazza” and ”Liberation”. “Piazza” involves tight spaces and narrow corridors, the map is made for close-quarter, frantic combat. It also features downhill-uphill battle since it takes place in an Italic mountainside. The “Liberation” is very different compared to “Piazza” and features a slightly different MW 3 gameplay. “Liberation” is a wide map with mounted machine guns on both sides, well-suited for objective-based game. The map takes place in the Central Park, just after the New York’s battle. This Modern Warfare 3 content drops will be available for Xbox LIVE’s Elite subscribers on the 24th of January 2012. The DLC will land publicly sometimes in March. Well, isn’t the Modern Warfare 3 gameplay and DLC promising?

The Witcher Enhanced Edition Only $2.5 on Amazon

Hey yo cheapskates! We are back again in the Venomous Sales article, and now it is The Witcher Enhanced Edition's turn to be discussed following recent overwhelming new year sales. I don’t know why, the new year celebration of 2012 follows with unbelievable sales and discounts. So insane that the sales are injecting venom into our veins that tempt us to shop and scrap our wallets empty before we know it.

The sales of The Witcher Enhanced Edition in Amazon a few days ago was simply reckless and relentless. Chopping the price off like chopping meat, a whopping marvelous western RPG game only cost a mere two and a half dollars. That’s absolutely right, two dollars and 50 cents. That price is unimaginable. Downloadable, DRM-free version of The Witcher Enhanced Edition cost less than my everyday lunch!

The Witcher Enhanced Edition

Unfortunately, that unbelievable price is no longer available. But, you can still buy the digital download version of The Witcher Enhanced Version – Director’s Cut in both Steam and Amazon for ten bucks, no more and no less. With that price, it is still considered cheap and The Witcher Enhanced Edition definitely worth more than ten bucks.

The original version came out in October 2007 while the enhanced version landed about a year later. The enhanced version contains redundant contents, adding more spice in the game. Included in the game, graphics upgrade and retextures, bug fixes, lots of new animations, dialogue corrections, brand new inventory system, and helluva faster load times! To excites the fans more, CDProjeckt added two new adventures, which are The Price of Neutrality and Side Effects, lengthening the game for five hours more. The D’Jinni Adventure Editor that allows you to make your own adventure is also included in the pack. The retail version adds soundtrack CD, Making of DVD, short story from The Last Wish, Map of Temeria, official strategy guide, and Audio CD that contains “inspired by” songs. CDProjeckt invested a million dollars making the enhanced version and it turns out that it was worth it.

To avoid further confusion, I want to explain the enhanced version’s type. There are the regular enhanced edition, director’s cut (old), and director’s cut (new). The regular enhanced edition contains all those extra contents and nothing more. Director’s Cut is actually the same with the regular enhanced version with a censorship patch that removes the North America’s censorship. The old and new Director’s Cut is identical, the difference is the publisher. While Polish release is published by CDProjeckt, the global edition is published by Atari, Inc. If you happen to have already owned the boxed retail version of the vanilla and have registered yours on the official forum, you can download the extras of the enhanced edition with no extra charge.

Last words, this game is purely filled with actions and goodass story with RPG elements. This is one of the best western RPG that ever exist in the world, rivaling the Fallout series and the Elder Scrolls franchise. As stated in a book called 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die, this really gives you the one of the best, top-class western RPG feel. For less than ten bucks, no doubt that The Witcher Enhanced Edition is highly-wanted.

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Pack - Darklight Crypt for $20!

The new year does bring lots of changes, especially good changes. Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Pack - Darklight Crypt, the second adventure pack available for Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, got its price changed to $20 on Amazon! The pack is like an add-on or new content for the game. Four toy figure are always included in an adventure pack. This time, in the Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Pack - Darklight Crypt, includes a figure that opens an area in the game called Darklight Crypt, two figures that act as items and magics in the game, and the last one is a Skylander toy figure that unlocks the exclusive Skylander of the Darklight Crypt, Ghost Roaster. It is developed by Toys for Bobs also XPEC Entertainment for the Windows, Mac, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 version while Vicarious Visions handles the Nintendo 3DS version and Frima Studio takes care of the IPhone, IPad, and the web game. Activion is the publisher of the game.

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is a toy brand and a spin-off game based on the Spyro series. This game’s genre is platformer combined with role-playing game and adventure elements. Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure is highly enjoyable for both children and adults. And it may cause addiction because of its revolutionary and never-seen-before system. We play as a Portal Master whose job is to terminate the evil Portal Master, Kaos.

The game’s gameplay is unique because it combines video game and toys. Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure allows you to make your toy figures live in the game and upgrade it. Buying the starter or regular edition will get you the game, three toy figures, and a special peripheral called “Portal of Power” to be connected to your game console, especially made for the game. The three toy figures are used as your characters inside the game. Connect the “Portal of Power” to your console and put your favorite figure on top of it and the character in the game will unlock. There is around 37 characters for now even though the starter pack only carries three with it. You can buy the rest for eight bucks each or wait for exclusive adventure packs that include a Skylander toy figure for each bundle.

The Skylander toy figures in the game are also used as mobile saved games, meaning, when you put your figure on another “Portal of Power” even on a different console version, your stats, upgrades, skills, achievements will carry over. Putting two Skylanders toy figures on the “Portal of Power” will enable the local co-op mode or versus mode. There is no online multiplayer mode though. Other than characters, there are power-ups or key toy figures to be used. It breaks the boundary of toy and video games.

Starter pack items for the console version and 3DS version is different. Even some item figures’ effect are different when used on the 3DS version since the genre for the 3DS version is 3D platformer and it has a different gameplay system. While the starter pack of consoles includes Spyro, Gill Grunt, and Trigger Happy, the 3DS starter pack includes Dark Spyro, Stealth Elf, and Ignitor.

The Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure Pack – Darklight Crypt contains an exclusive character and other items. When used in the web version, items become collection and adds 200 gold-reward trophy to your account except for Skylanders. Below is the complete list of the toy figures and effects:

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Pack - Darkligh Crypt

Ghost Roaster
All versions: Putting this Skylander figure on the “Portal of Power” will unlock the Ghost Roaster. This Undead Skylander is quite overpowered. Its favorite quote is “No Chain, No Gain!”.

Darklight Crypt
Console version: This toy figure unlocks the Darklight Crypt chapter when placed on top of the “Portal of Power” in the Ruins. When used in any other chapter, the Darklight Crypt will release horde of ghosts to terrorize the enemies, inflicting 999 damage to all enemies once per chapter.

3DS version: It unlocks the Darklight Crypt via the Sanctuary.

Healing Elixir
Console version: Heals 15 HP per second for half a minute for all Skylanders on the portal. Once per chapter only.

3DS version: Regenerates the health points of your Skylander, Use 10 radiance plus this magic by pressing R.

Time Twist Hourglass
Console version: A once-per-chapter item that slows down pretty much everything in the game except the Skylanders.

3DS version: Spend 10 radiances to activate it and paralyze nearby enemies.

The Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Pack - Darklight Crypt add on is a good bargain now. Because of the popularity, it is a shame that the twenty bucks sales stocks in Amazon are currently sold out. Anyhow, you can still buy it in several stores for less than thirty bucks.

Scene It? Box Office Smash Bundles Available for Less Than $25!

Scene It? is a movie and pop culture trivia game. It is supposed to be a party game where a lot of people are in and competing for the best score. Scene It? itself is not a fresh game, the original series was released years ago with continuously updating content to follow the most up-to-date information of recent pop culture and movies.

Scene It? Box Office Smash was released on the 28th of October 2008 solely for Xbox 360. It is one of the first games to support the Xbox 360 avatar. The game itself is similar in genre with the original Scene It?, which is trivia concerning pop culture and movies. It supports up to 4 players.

Scene It?

 

The original Scene It? involves rolling dices in the gameplay. Scene It? Box Office Smash simply prompts player to answer questions over specific-themed rounds, 5 questions each. It is very fun and a good party game. The downside is Scene It? Box Office Smash gets boring real fast. Like after several playthroughs, the game will feel dull and sleep-inducing. The most annoying element of this game is the announcer, if you can survive the waves of annoying announcing, you are either really a strong man or a masochist. This game also got a downloadable content called Award Winners that includes 800 new questions and new achievements. It is available in the marketplace for 560 Microsoft Points.

Even though the game is dusty, recently, it got popular recently. It is due to a massive discount at several e-stores. The price is overwhelmingly cheap. By the time I am writing this article, Scene It? Box Office Smash Bundles is priced at around 20 bucks each. A few days ago, it was around 15 bucks. It is incredibly cheap because the bundle includes the old game plus 4 big button controllers. Big button controllers are controllers specially designed for trivia and party game, rendering choosing options easier. The fact is, a lot of people buy this. The item was even sold out a few days ago. Gamers mostly buying it only for the controllers, not the game. Big button controllers are hard to find these days, for your info. The game is outdated and beaten by You Don’t Know Jack, a newer and up-to-date trivia games released last year. The controllers are good peripherals to support rounds of  You Don’t Know Jack. Pop culture and movie knowledge night with your friends will be more fun and exciting with the big button controllers.

Every day, the demand is increasing and it means the price is also elevating. If you want to secure it, whetjer you will play the game or simply buy it for the sake of the controllers, do it now. You can check Amazon or Best Buy or Gamestop or other e-stores that suit you the best for the Scene It? Box Office Smash Bundles sales. I don’t know why the average price is dropping and there are deals on nearly all e-stores that sell this game recently, but nevertheless, good luck getting your hands on them, guys!

The Modern Age 2D Platforming Genius, Rayman Origins

Rayman Origins is an excellent 2D platforming game that is missing from the recent gaming industry. Ubisoft stayed away from the mainstream and created a unique game instead of following the market. And Ubisoft was right, we are missing the classic joy of 2D platformer that is solely made for fun and enjoyable for anyone since we have been force-fed with adult and mature material games where the space for kids is close to nothing.

On the 15th of November 2011, Rayman Origins was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. There is also future release for 3DS, which is dated on the 16th of March 2012. Sony’s next generation handheld console, PS Vita, also gets its version of Rayman Origins that is going to be released on the 22th of next month. First, the game is only going to be released as episodes in the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PlayStation Networks, but in the middle of last year, it was announced that this latest installment of Rayman will be released as a full retail game, making Rayman Origins a major game after years of absence. And that is not wrong, the developer and publisher is totally right for making Rayman Origins a full retail game.

The game begins after the events of the first three Rayman series, despite the title including the word “Origins”. Rayman and friends are taking a snooze, relaxing and peaceful. One day, their snorts and snoozing sounds disturb a grandma in The Land of The Livid Dead and she responds by sending mighty armies of nightmare creatures, wreaking havoc in the Glade of Dreams. The Darktoons sent by the granny kidnapped Electoons, disturbing the stability of the world. This happening made the escape of Rayman’s arch enemy possible, which is Mister Dark.

Rayman Origins feature classic side-scrolling platformer like the old days. The artwork is simply awesome and dreamy. It is unique and very beautiful. The cartoonish artwork in the beautiful high definition does not affect the game’s performance at all, framerate is steady and comfy. In a level, your objective is to collect points, Lums, defeat vile creatures, and free the Electoons to restore the stability of the Glade of Dreams. Through progression, you will unlock upgrades and new abilities to overcome obstacles. You can visit completed stages to get hidden treasures and bonuses that requires you to use skills obtained in later levels. To continue to the next levels, freeing certain kidnapped Electoons is required. Sometimes the cages are clearly visible and sometimes they are hidden somewhere in the stage.

Rayman Origins

Playing the singleplayer mode of Rayman Origins is not a bad experience, Ubisoft presents it well. The local multiplayer highly increases the replayability value of this game. Even though it lacks the online multiplayer that is popular these days, the local multiplayer is enough to entertain you and your friends. Rayman Origins support up to 4 players in the local multiplayer. The usable characters are Rayman, Globox, Grand Minimus, and Goth Caster. You will feel the fun and excitement with your friends while exploring the Glade of Dreams and repelling the vile creatures of The Land of The Livid Dead.

Old gamers miss this genre. The recent magnificent release of side-scrolling platformer includes Little Big Planet and several other games. Rayman Origins is currently the best available next generation 2D side-scrolling platforming game since the classic Mario series are still missing. You absolutely won’t regret the bucks you paid for it and if you are looking for discounts, now is the time because there are many Rayman Origins discounts all over the internet. You can even grab the game for as low as 30 bucks! Slaptastic!

Duke Nukem Forever: The Doctor Who Cloned Me

The very first campaign download content Duke Nukem Forever, The Doctor Who Cloned Me was released about amonth ago, exactly on the 14th of December 2011. The Doctor Who Cloned Me showed up about half a year after the release of Duke Nukem Forever. I know it is a little bit late, but never mind. It had been awaited by the fans since the days of PSX. It took 14 years for Duke Nukem to revive in next-gen consoles. Well, the 14 years Nukem took are wasted in vain. The original game is simply apeshit with outdated jokes. Heavy disappointment, guys. Will the doctor who cloned Duke Nukem cure the game’s flaws and replace it with better experience that reflects the true Duke Nukem Forever? Let’s see what I have to say about it.

Duke Nukem Forever

The Doctor Who Cloned Me takes place after the original Duke Nukem Forever ending. The game’s ending is not complete and it is sort of hanging. Without filling the gap, the story continues with Duke Nukem as the main bad ass of the game. This download content relive Nukem’s classic sworn enemy, Dr.Proton.

Duke Nukem wakes up in a lab, tied to a chair with another Duke Nukem in front of him trying to put the real Nukem out of misery. But of course, that is a worthless effort since the real Nukem is immortal. Duke Nukem finds out that he was kidnapped by Dr.Proton. He is being used by Dr.Proton as a clone “father” for his clone army and Proton is finished with Nukem since he is now already able to create the cyborg clones called Dukeinators. The game revolves in the underground facility in Area 51 and also the moon. Duke Nukem fights Dukeinators to find Dr.Proton for the sake of ripping-his-head-off and goes to the moon to bust aliens.

Actually, it is better than the vanilla Duke Nukem Forever. We have more actions, new fun features, and much better one-liners. The action in this DLC is seriously top-notch. The features include new ways of increasing Ego meter like interacting with the Dukeinator, arm-wrestling, playing 8-bit games, and more. The fresh new feature that is available in The Doctor Who Cloned Me first-person platforming puzzle. Well, it is not that good though because the puzzles are retarded and breaking the fun to frustation. About the jokes, it is not about outdated events before 2009 or other ridiculous things, but it is about Duke Nukem’s own thinking of the environment he is in. The one-liners do the job well. The Doctor Who Cloned Me offers brand new 4 multiplayer maps based on the singleplayer campaign. There is also a new weapon called the Enlarger.

The main disappointment of this game is the first-person platforming puzzles that are overly crazing me. The puzzles seem weird and unethical. For what it is worth, if you love Duke Nukem blasting bloody mess, buy it. However, if you are not a fan of Duke Nukem Forever and loathe it, don’t. However, it is indeed an improvement. It is not so bad betting your ten bucks for it though.

Zelda Symphony 2012 Tour Starts Kicking Tomorrow!

In order to celebrate The Legend of Zelda 25th anniversary, Nintendo is going to hold Zelda symphony. Zelda symphony is an orchestral concert where songs from The Legend of Zelda is played. The official name is Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses. I bet my five bucks that the concert won’t be disappointing.

The Zelda symphony concert itself consists of a full choir with 70-piece orchestra plus brand new arrangements. The songs are chosen by Koji Kondo, the well-known game composer. He is the one who composed the songs in Mario series and The Legend of Zelda. The producer of “PLAY! A Video Game Symphony”, Jason Michael Paul Production, is going to produce the Zelda Symphony.

The premier was held in Pantages Theatre at Los Angeles on the 21st of October 2011. In the premier, Mr. Eiji Aonuma and Mr. Koji Kondo was there. A Lot of Zelda fans that have attended the premier show have posted the review. They say that the Zelda Symphony is breathtaking and dazzling. The money they spent for it didn’t go for nothing. It was unforgettable according to the attendants’ reviews whether they favor either the moments when the songs are played or when seeing the legendary composer in person.

You can buy the tickets via Ticketmaster. The price varies from $19 up to $115. Of course, what you pay is what you get. Originally, a 15 percent discount was only eligible for Nintendo Club members until recently, last Friday, it is stated in the official Twitter and Facebook accounts of Zelda Symphony that everyone can get the 15 percent discount by entering HOOKSHOT as the discount code on Ticketmaster. By the time I am writing this article, the tickets for the first show in 2012 tomorrow that takes place in Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas have sold out. C’mon cheapskates! Don’t wait until the tickets are all sold out!

Currently, the official schedule only involves the US. No news yet regarding the Zelda Symphony’s concert outside the US, but I am looking forward to it. The concerts always start from 8 PM and some may start at 7.30 PM. This list is the latest list as of today (Monday, 9th of January 2012) taken from the official site:

The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary - Zelda Symphony

• Jan 10, 2012 at Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, TX
• Mar 14, 2012 at Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver, BC
• Mar 26, 2012 at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA
• Mar 28, 2012 at Davies Symphony Hall, San Fransisco, CA
• Apr 07, 2012 at Boettcher Hall, Denver, CO
• Apr 20, 2012 at Orpheum Theatre, Phoenix, AZ
• Apr 21, 2012 at Orpheum Theatre, Phoenix, AZ
• May 12, 2012 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Atlanta, GA
• May 31, 2012 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Montreal, QB
• Jun 22, 2012 at Long Center for the Performing Arts, Austin, TX
• Jul 14, 2012 at Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre, Orlando, FL
• Sep 29, 2012 at Sony Centre, Toronto, ON

All of the Zelda Symphony’s tickets can be bought now except for the one in Toronto’s Sony Centre, that one is available on the 31st of March 2012. Residents of Phoenix, you are blessed, Zelda Symphony 2 days in a row!

Where to Find It: Skyrim Nirnroot

The Skyrim Nirnroot is a rare and useful item in Skyrim. It is mainly used for alchemy. There is a quest that prompts you to collect Skyrim Nirnroot. But it is not as bad as Oblivion’s where you have to collect a whopping amount of Nirnroots. I meant five-thousands-nirnroots-collecting bad.

Skyrim Nirnroot is a plant that is growing in Tamriel. It is very rare according to the loading screen tips. The Skyrim Nirnroot is highly-valued by alchemists. A very good ingredient indeed. It also emits a fluorescent light at night, making it easier to spot. It is said that Nirnroots aren’t growing back after being harvested. But the truth is, Skyrim Nirnroot grows back. Either myth busted or glitch busted!

Why do we need the magic weeds? In alchemy, Skyrim Nirnroot gives four effects, which are damage health, damage stamina, invisibility, and resist magic. The root is needed to craft some potions and poisons. Other than that, it is needed to complete a quest called Few and Far Between where you have to collect 30 nirnroots to restock rare ingredients to alchemist. For extra fortunes, you can sell it to Avrusa Sarethi, the owner of the Sarethi Farm for 10 gold.

Nirnroots grow near the water. You can find it in shores of Skyrim. It emits light and produce a horrible sound whenyou are near the Skyrim Nirnroot. But fear not, the nirnroots have an exact places of respawn. They can regrow in days. You can also find nirnroots on merchants, loots, and stores. There is a specific farm that grows nirnroots too. Every time you find a dead alchemist body, loot it. They are bound to be found on an alchemist’ dead body since the Skyrim Nirnroot is a must for alchemists.

I will list you the area where the Nirnroots can be found plus the amount. Check this out, it is categorized based on the area:

Skyrim Nirnroot Locations

The Rift

• Sarethi Farm -  9
• Heartwood Mill - 3

Haafingar

• Northwatch Keep - 8
• Steepfall Burrow - 6
• Ravenscar Hollow - 3
• Around Rimerock Burrow - 3
• Broken Oar Grotto - 3

The Pale

• Dawnstar Sanctuary - 5
• Wreck of The Brinehammer - 3

The Reach

• Bruca’s Leap Redoubt - 4
• Around Mor Khazgur - 3
• Gloomreach - 3

Hjaalmarch

• Abandoned Shack - 3
• Wreck of the Icerunner - 3

Whiterun Hold

• Redoran’s Retreat - 3
• Bleakwind Basin - 3

Falkreath Hold

• Evergreen Grove - 4

Winterhold

• Bleakcoast Cave - 3

Other

• Brinewater Grotto - 3

Okay, so that were the places where you can get the nirnroots without any doubt. You can find more along the coast. You can steal some too from Angeline’s Aromatics at Solitude or Sinderion’s Field Laboratory at Blackreach.

However, the nirnroots are not without glitches and bugs. Like always, Bethesda’s games are always filled with bugs. Don’t know whether their tester sucks or they are making us the testers. The nirnroot’s glowing light sometimes does not vanish after the corresponding nirnroot being picked up. And there is a Skyrim Nirnroot that cannot be harvested too somewhere near Winterhold.

Have an update regarding the growing places of nirnroots? We will appreciate your help!

Modders Heaven: Skyrim Creation Kit Arrives This January

Finally, the month has come. Modders game-of-the-century kit, Skyrim Creation Kit will be released sometime this month exclusively for PC. Bethesda has announced the release of the kit since the earl of December. Since it is the second week of the month, we can expect it to be released to the wild not longer than 2 weeks from now. This tool is absolutely going to steal your sweetroll!

Bethesda is genius, you know why? Releasing the tool for modders will surely expand the community. It makes modding easier and more detailed. Actually, the predecessor of Skyrim, Oblivion, also has a creation kit. The difference is, Oblivion creation kit was included in the game. Before the Skyrim Creation Tools arrived, we already have a massive community of Skyrim modders and mod users. I think Bethesda really understands well what their customers want and also understands well the law of mutual exchange. Well, I mean they understand that creation kit means larger community, and larger community means more bigger and sweeter sweetrolls. Catch what I’m saying?

Skyrim Creation Kit

The Skyrim Creation Kit is the developing kit originally made and used by Bethesda. It will render possible for modders to extract, see, and edit the game files more accurately and detailed. Modding before the release of the kit is possible though. Modders use third party modding kits to see, add, and edit game files of the game. The kits are the ones that are usually used on the Elder Scrolls series games and it came out that the kits are also compatible for Skyrim. The mods are also gonna be compatible to Steam Workshop, meaning, you can download mods, upload yours, and rate others on Steam with the “cloud” storage system. It is now simpler to install the mods using Steam Workshop. It will automatically install the mod to the right directory. You won’t be troubled and confused on where and how to install mods.

So, what does Skyrim Creation Kit capable of doing? Well, the Skyrim Creation Kit allows modders to extract more game data. More game data mean more information available for the game. Not only information, but modders can also make more advanced mods based on the game data. Other than editing, the creation kit can also add new things. Modders can make their own game contents and add it to the vanilla for better experiences. Bugs and glitches can also be fixed using the game’s creation kit. So, we could fix the bugs and glitches without waiting for the official patch release from Bethesda.

This Skyrim Creation Kit is like a dream catcher. You can make your dreams come true if you understand programming and designs. If you don’t, you can ask and request every time to the nearest modders, sometimes for a price. You like the LMFAO? You can make RedFoo the Jarl of Whiterun and SkyBlu the Jarl of Winterhold. You hate Justin Bieber? Make the thugs’ face like Bieber and smack them up.  Or maybe you want to spice up the game by adding new armors, weapons, skills, or maybe cities and game modes! But of course, it is not easy to make one, time is the essence. The possibility of modding with Skyrim Creation Kit is beyond unlimited!

My cousin’s still off fighting dragons though. And I’m stuck here modding Skyrim.

NFL Blitz 2012 - Back in Action

It has been nine years since the last NFL Blitz was released, the long-awaited remake of NFL Blitz 2012 is now available on store! NFL Blitz 2012 was released a few days ago on the 4th of January 2012. Currently, there is no retail version of the game. You can only buy it via the XBOX Live Marketplace for 1200 Microsoft Points or 14.99 dollars in PlayStation Networks. The remake was made possible thanks to Electronic Arts.

Actually, the latest installment of the series was released about four years ago. Instead of NFL Blitz, it was titled as simply Blitz. The NFL Blitz name was carried only until 2003. In 2005, Midway released another American football game called Blitz: The League. It is filled with fiction rosters, players, tournaments, but it uses the similar rule. The game did not use the title NFL Blitz because Midway has lost the license.

NFL Blitz 2012

NFL Blitz 2012 remake release brings joy to the fans. After Midway filed for bankruptcy back in 2009, Electronic Arts got the NFL Blitz intellectual property’s rights. Electronic Arts is currently the one and only holder of NFL’s license and video game rights. Electronic Arts also differs the gameplay of Madden NFL and this NFL Blitz 2012. While EA’s Madden NFL is more real and more like a simulation game, NFL Blitz 2012 is designed to be an arcade, fast-paced American football game like the first arcade release of the game by Midway.

It is absolutely going to be crazily fun and wild. Hence, the genre, it is enjoyable to both experts of American football and first-timers. You can throw the ball like 50 yards away, doing impossible tricks, and even crazy-sprinting can get your player on fire, literally. There are no rule against violence. You can tackle the enemy however you like. No wonder that zombies can play football in this game. Different from real American football, the match consists of 14 players, seven men per team.

EA has included several modes. There is singleplayer mode and offline / online multiplayer mode. Even though the singleplayer mode can get boring in a short time, the multiplayer mode is a whole lotta fun. You can team up with your friends in your friends list or even with a friend locally to battle real players from across the world. Since it was originally developed by Midway, there is a mode called Blitz Gauntlet where you fight other teams in a similar-to-Mortal-Kombat ladder that involves bosses. EA has brilliantly implanted a classic system that won’t bore gamers when waiting for the match to start. That’s right, gorgeous cheerleader girls on the loading screen. Well, the girls are indeed hot, if you think an enormous headed girl with mini-sized body is hot.

Overall, the game is highly-recommended. NFL Blitz 2012 contains a combination of sports, novelties, insane actions that transform into an arcade game that is very enjoyable. You will be playing it for quite a while.

RuneScape Barrows New Look!

The 2012 new year comes with the legendary MMORPG’s improvement, RuneScape Barrows graphical upgrade! RuneScape Barrows is a life-staking minigame located in southern Morytania, east of Mort’ton. It is a tomb filled with restless spirits and other defiled creatures. It was released around 7 years ago, on the 9th of May 2005. You have to complete the Priest in Peril quest prior to doing the RunsScape Barrows since the reward gives access to the RuneScape Barrows.

RuneScape Barrows

The RuneScape Barrows is full of treasures. You have the possibility to find the Barrows equipments here which are strong armors in the game. The armors are even worth a big fortune. They can be sold up to 3 millions! Well, no pain no gain, Nuff said. To get the treasures, you have to overcome many challenges and hardships. Actually, the primary objective in the RuneScape Barrows is to open the treasure chest located deep in the Crypts and defeat the 6 damned Barrows Brothers souls. They are strong warriors that have different stats and specialties, also different weakness.

If you are trying to attempt this mini-game, beware. Going inside all gun-blazing will get you slaughtered in no time. Getting killed means losing your items. Lara Croft will even think twice before entering this cursed tomb of the damned. To fight the evil entities that lie in the RuneScape Barrows, it is recommended to use Magic attacks, preferably Ancient Magics. The Brothers are susceptible to magic. However, if you are a melee fighter or a ranged-typed character, don’t worry. You can still attempt this minigame, but you will need higher stats and level to survive the RuneScape Barrows.

The minigame starts when you dig a grave if the brothers. A spade is essential to dig the graves. No need to bring a spade since there are spades beside each graves. Digging the grave will lead into a room with sarcophagus. Inside the sarcophagus, the brother lies. Opening it will awaken the spirit and start the fight. Be careful not to piss yourself since they are very strong. You will need lots of recovery items. It is highly recommended that you bring an equipment that increases the drop quality and rate.

In the last sarcophagus, there won’t be any corpse, but there is an underground crypt where the last Barrows brother and the treasure chest sits silently. The crypt is like a maze with faulty doors. Every time you open a door, monsters will spawn. Getting near the treasure chest will spawn the last brother and any Barrows Brother that you haven’t killed yet.

Before 2012, the minigame visual look is considered shabby. Actually, it is not so bad. But, after 7 years have passed with no different graphics, it gets boring. So, to relive the RuneScape Barrows, new graphics upgrade is released. No more boring grave, no more sleazy Barrows Brother, no more old-fashioned Barrows. The environment is more misty and creepy, the Barrows Brothers are sleek and dazzling. This improvement will surprise Lara Croft for sure! On the 4th of January 2012, it was released along with extra 10 percent chance of getting double drops and new Draconic visage drop. The extra bonuses won’t last forever, it will end on the 12th of January 2012. Come on, what are you waiting for? Be the next tomb raider in the “new” RuneScape Barrows!

WoW - Darkmoon Faire 2012

Here comes the time for the monthly event of World of Warcraft, Darkmoon Faire! The Darkmoon Faire is held on Sunday before the first Monday of the month for a week. This month, it started on Sunday, the 1st of January 2012 until next Sunday. This month’s gonna be fun!

Darkmoon Faire is a carnival event held by Darkmoon Silas. It is also an enormous gathering place for vendors, NPC, and players. The carnival is located on the Darkmoon Island. You can get there via the portal on Thunder Bluff, Mulgore and Goldshire, Elwynn Forest. If you can’t manage to get there or you are too lazy to walk there and can afford some silver, you can use the transport service. You can find the mages that offer teleport service in Orgrimmar, Stormwind City, and Dalaran. The price varies depending on your current level. You will not regret it, the experiences there are worth the silvers spent!

The Darkmoon Faire is a sanctuary, meaning, bloodshed in the area is forbidden. Since it is a true neutral place, every race and faction can visit it to have fun. Even though the place is sanctuary, the area beside the path is dangerous. PvP is often demonstrated near the Darkmoon Faire. Be careful not to stray too far from the Faire and the pathway.

Darkmoon Faire

So, in the Darkmoon Faire, you can find various entertainment stands, shops, vendors, and quest givers. The items sold by the vendors are not usual and common items, there are rather rare items sold. Replica armors for transmogrification are also available in the Darkmoon Faire. To play a mini-game, you have to pay with Darkmoon Game Tokens obtained from completing profession quests from the NPCs in the Faire. Playing the mini-game earns you Darkmoon Prize Tickets that can be traded with items like pets, transmogrification armors, heirlooms, mounts, et cetera. Below is the list of the mini-games and other fun activities in the Darkmoon Faire:

The Darkmoon Cannon
You can launch yourself up in the air with The Darkmoon Cannon. Your job is to hit a target on the water. Getting a bullseye nets you 5 points, close to the bullseye gets you 3 points, and the least point is 1 point. Achieving a certain high score will get you Darkmoon Prize Ticket.

Ring Toss
The classic ring toss. You are given 10 rings to toss onto the pole.

Shooting Gallery
My favorite game in carnivals. The vendor will give you a pellet rifle, in 60 seconds, you have to score at least 25 points. The mini-game is easy if you are not plagued by lag.

Whack-a-Gnoll
Similar to Whack-the-Mole. Instead of moles, you have gnolls to whack. Hitting a normal gnoll earns you 1 point, Hogger gnoll earns you 3 points, and hitting a baby gnoll makes you lose the game. You are given 60 seconds to net 30 points by whacking the gnolls with a mallet.

Tonk Challenge
Control a Steam Tonk Cannon with a remote controller. Your mission is to destroy 30 targets in the warzone with other players’ tonks. The Tonk can only damage other tonk, it cannot damage players. Tonks is an alternative to conventional PvP.

Fortunes
You have to answer several questions and the fortune-teller will give you a fortune that transforms into a buff that last for two hours. The buff depends on your answer to the questions.

Test Your Strength
You will be challenged to bring back as many trophies as you can. The trophies are earned by killing creatures that give you experiences with the Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide in your bag.

Darkmoon Zoo Bizarre
The zoo will be available in the end of the Darkmoon Faire. There are many exotic and strange animals in the zoo. It is like a freak show with petting zones and VIP tours.

Deathmatch Pit
You can try to get the Darkmoon Treasure Chest by winning this game. You will be pitted in the arena with many players. The rule is free-for-all and of course, survival of the fittest. The chest respawns every three hours.

Tonk Free-For-All
There are free tonks to control for a free-for-all tonks battle.

Chieftain of Tauren’s Performance
Every hour, the Chieftain will perform Power of the Horde on a stage sometimes.

It is fun, no? C’mon, let’s go to the Darkmoon Faire this month while it still lasts! Behold, my friend: The Darkmoon Faire!

SWTOR Matrix Shard Recipe and Video Guide

SWTOR Matrix Shard is an item used to craft or assembly a relic called Matrix Cube. Three SWTOR Matrix Shards are required to assembly a Matrix Cube. They are only can be found in datacrons scattered all over the universe. Every character has 2 slots of relic equipment, but only one Matrix Cube can be stored in the inventory at a time because it is considered a limited mission item. The cube gives passive stats bonus.

SWTOR Matrix Shards

The SWTOR Matrix Shards and datacrons are limited in number, there are only 67 datacrons and 16 matrix shards in the game. The SWTOR Matrix Shards and datacrons are located in all the worlds, including Republic Worlds, Imperial Worlds and Neutral Worlds. Since I love Sith Assassin, let me start the list from Sith Empire World:

Sith Empire Worlds
Hutta= Blue Matrix Shard
Korriban= Red Matrix Shard
Dromund Kaas= Yellow Matrix Shard

Galactic Republic Worlds
Ord Mantell= Red Matrix Shard
Coruscant= Yellow Matrix Shard
Tython= Blue Matrix Shard

Neutral Worlds
Balmorra= [Imp] Green Matrix Shard
Taris= [Rep] Green Matrix Shard
Hoth= Red Matrix Shard
Nar Shaddaa= Yellow Matrix Shard
Ilum= Yellow Matrix Shard, Red Matrix Shard
Belsalvis= Green Matrix Shard
Corellia= Blue Matrix Shard, Green Matrix Shard
Tatooine= Blue Matrix Shard

So, the total is four Red Matrix Shards, four Green Matrix Shards, four Blue Matrix Shards, and four Yellow Matrix Shards. See the video guide below for the exact location of the datacrons for the SWTOR Matrix Shards.

SWTOR Matrix Shards Video Guide

Three Matrix Shards are needed to craft the Matrix Cube. You can combine the same colors or different colors. Every different combination of SWTOR Matrix Shard color can produce different effects and different level of Matrix Cube. Each of the color represents:

Red= Strength
Green= Cunning/Aim
Blue= Willpower
Yellow= Endurance

To assemble a Matrix Cube, an assembly is essential. The Sith Empire’s is on Dromund Kaas, in any-access phase around the Dark Temple. The Republic’s is in the Jedi Temple Ruins on Coruscant. It is free to assemble a relic. If you think that you have assembled a wrong relic, you can disassemble it to get the materials back. Though, using disassembler is not free, you need a power core to operate it. Buy one for 20,000 credits on Tatooine or Taris. Buy it from a Jawa.

Now that you have known the basics, let me start the listing. There are 4 tiers of Matrix Cubes. Level 15, level 24, level 32, and level 50 cubes. The level 50 cubes are divided to Force user and Tech user’s Matrix Cube. There are several bugged Matrix Cubes too. The list below maybe not complete, but it is the latest information available.

Level 15
-Red+Yellow+Green = M2-W1
8 Endurance + 18 Willpower
-Red+Blue+Green = M2-W2
15 Aim + 11 Endurance
-Red+Blue+Yellow = M2-W3
18 Strength + 8 Endurance
-Blue+Green+Yellow = M2-W0
11 Strength + 14 Endurance

Level 24
-Yellow+Yellow+Blue = M3-J1
19 Aim + 24 Endurance
-Yellow+Yellow+Red = M3-J2
19 Strength + 24 Endurance
-Yellow+Yellow+Green = M3-L1
14 Endurance + 28 Cunning
-Blue+Blue+Yellow = M3-A1
19 Strength + 24 Endurance
-Blue+Blue+Green = M3-A2
28 Aim + 14 Endurance
-Blue+Blue+Red = M3-V2
24 Endurance + 19 Willpower

Level 32
-Green+Green+Red = M4-B1
39 Cunning + 23 Endurance
-Green+Green+Blue = M4-A1
29 Aim + 33 Endurance
-Green+Green+Yellow = M4-L0
29 Strength + 33 Endurance (bugged?)
-Red+Red+Green = M4-B2
39 Aim + 23 Endurance
-Red+Red+Blue = M4-V1
33 Endurance + 29 Willpower
-Red+Red+Yellow = M4-O2
29 Strength + 33 Endurance (bugged?)

Level 50 – Tech Users
-Red+Red+Red = M7-R3
72 Cunning + 48 Endurance + 7 Critical Rating
-Green+Green+Green = M7-G0
50 Strength + 43 Endurance + 18 Critical Rating + 26 Surge (Bugged?)
-Blue+Blue+Blue = M7-B3
58 Strength + 50 Endurance +24 Critical Rating
-Yellow+Yellow+Yellow = M7-Y3
52 Aim + 60 Endurance + 18 Defense Rating

Level 50 – Force Users
-Red+Red+Red = M7-R3
50 Endurance + 58 Willpower + 24 Critical Rating
-Green+Green+Green = M7-G0
58 Strength + 50 Endurance + 24 Critical Rating
-Blue+Blue+Blue = M7-B3
50 Aim + 43 Endurance + 26 Accuracy + 18 Critical (bugged?)
-Yellow+Yellow+Yellow = M7-Y3
52 Strength + 60 Endurance + 18 Defense Rating

That was the recipe of Matrix Cube from combinations of SWTOR Matrix Shards. Don’t be shy to leave a comment!

UFC Personal Trainer: Free Workout Pack!

On June 28th 2011, this revolutionary fitness game, UFC Personal Trainer was released. It is not only a usual fitness or workout game, but it gives you the real workout sessions of UFC champions. You can choose various champion’s workout sessions and also learn actual moves like kickboxing uppercut, flying knee, isometric lunge, wrestling sprawl, et cetera. It is published by THQ and developed by Heavy Iron Studio. To play this game, you will need Kinect for Xbox 360 and PS Move for PS3. No additional peripheral is needed for Wii.

UFC Personal Trainer was released full of bugs, crashes, and freezes. Since the August 2011’s patch, the game has been better with less errors. The Xbox 360 Kinect version has voice command feature, allowing you to command the game without getting your hands on the controller. But, the Wii version did not get any fixes since it is impossible.

In this game, there are 4 coaches. Greg Jackson, Mark Dellagrotte, Rachelle Leah, and Javier Mendez. You will be told what to do by the coaches plus motivational words to keep you on fire. The workout itself is not a common fitness workout, there are times that you imitate the moves of UFC champions. You will feel like a real bad ass mixed martial artist when working out with this game.

UFC Personal Trainer

Buy it now on Amazon

UFC Personal Trainer is not just words. There are testimonials and results from real customers. It will surely make you lose weights and make you healthier by any means. Despite all the advantages, UFC is still a niche. The sales is not that surprisingly high, it is so-so. And to promote UFC Personal Trainer, on January 6th 2012, THQ released a free workout pack by Urijah Faber in Xbox Marketplace. Urijah Faber is a Bantamweight UFC fighter. The free workout pack will include 5 new workout routines and also 15 Hit the Mitts practices with the Bantamweight. It also includes an Undisputee Trainee achievement that will allow you to unlock Create-a-Fighter boost exclusively for the upcoming UFC Indisputed 3. The boost will save you like 10 hours of gameplay for your character. THQ does not stop there.

Two workout packs are currently planned to release on the end of this month and also on the mid of next month. The workout packs cost 800 Microsoft points each. The Cain Velasques workout pack will release on the 31st of January 2012. It includes five brand new workout routines and Hit the Mitts drills with the virtual Mr. Velasques. The other one is Jon Jones workout pack. It is planned to release on the 21st of January 2012 featuring five workout routines and 15 Hit the Mitts session with the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Jon Jones.

This fitness-fighting game is considered underrated. THQ prefers and supports mostly the Xbox 360 version since that version is the one that sells the most. There is no official statement and announcement yet regarding the Wii version and PS3 version DLCs. If you want to buy it, it is priced at around 50 bucks. In spite of its average review scores, UFC Personal Trainer is still a good and worthy fitness game. I haven’t got my hands on this game yet, but I want to. UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Workout for the Ultimate UFC Body!

UFC on Xbox LIVE – Epic Fail Premier

The premier of UFC on Xbox LIVE was last Friday. This jaw-breaking, intense show is favored by a lot of people, including gamers. To please the customers hunger of violence, Microsoft released the UFC application in Xbox LIVE on the 20th of December 2011. The app allows gamers to watch UFC on Xbox LIVE and because it is a pay-per-view show, you still have to pay per view. This app surely attracts attentions from the gamers and UFC’s die-hard fans. The premier was scheduled to air on Friday, the 30th of December 2011, 10 days after the initial release of the app. Gold members will have access on pre-fights and extras. Chatting to friends when watching the match is also possible. But, did it go that well? Let’s see.

UFC on Xbox LIVE

Before the premier UFC on Xbox LIVE, Microsoft has issued 30,000 freebie codes and sent it to lucky customers to promote the app. The premier was UFC 141 Lesnar versus Overeem. It was supposed to be a thrilling, action-packed fight. The freebie watchers and the subscribers are all waiting for this awesome fight of the century in front of their Xbox 360. But shit happens ‘nuff said. The show was actually far from the expectations, it was a total wreckage. Imagine you are streaming a video with rapid auto-switching video quality from HD, standard, even to “egg scramble” quality. For some people, the app won’t start even though button-mashing was well performed. The UFC on Xbox LIVE app bounces and crashes, making viewers very much disappointed. The chat feature did not work, nor the fast-forwarding. For some poor guys, they couldn’t watch other than the start of the show. Lesnar looked like scrambly white and black dots while Overeem looked like moving static lines on the screen.

This is likely to be caused by server overload. Since UFC is very popular, a lot of dudes have already subscribed to the UFC app. Followed with Microsoft’s 30,000 freebie viewers. Watching the live pay-per-view in a channel with that amount of viewers have surely wrecked the app. I don’t know why Microsoft did not consider this kind of problem to the testing phase.

Regarding this problem, Microsoft humbly apologized to the viewers, freebies and non-freebies. The 30,000 freebies can be used on future fight to compensate the disappointment. But, on the verge of the disaster, Microsoft said to watch UFC on alternative way. Microsoft is simply turning down the customers’ hope and refusing money. Can you imagine yourself as a die-hard fanatics of [insert your favorite show here] that failed to watch your long-awaited live limited-time special edition show episode because of a technical problem and to make it even worse, you paid for it. What are you going to do? Sue? Put a shotgun in the responsible person’s mouth? If I were one of the disappointed viewers, I would simply ask for a refund or a massive compensation.

So, do you think UFC on Xbox LIVE will succeed seeing the first impression was really a made-me-pissed-off material? Let’s see what do you say about this, leave a comment below!

Survive L.A. Noire: Tips and Trick

Developed by Team Bondi and Rockstar, L.A. Noire has shown its outstanding quality to gamers. L.A Noire is proven to be revolutionary and unique, despite its adoption of usual sandbox gameplay that involves free-roaming, car-driving, and side-missions. L.A. Noire introduces the face motion capture technology. It means that real actors act while the developers are recording the face motion. The records are processed and combined with animation software to make the best-ever face expressions in the video game history. The game was released around May last year for XBOX 360 and PS3, the PC edition came on the 8th of November 2011 in North America and 11th of November worldwide with all DLCs included and dubbed “L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition”.

Even though the genre is similar to other games like True Crime and Mafia, it offers different and exceptional features. In this game, we cannot outrageously shoot pedestrians or crush random people’s heads with tires. We play as the good guy this time, which is Detective Cole Phelps. Our job as Detective Cole Phelps is to bust baddies and fight in the name of righteousness. Detective Phelps was a soldier in the World War II. He got his ass shipped back to the States because of some “accident” (no worries, no spoilers are gonna be spoiled). L.A. Noire features detective investigation in the crime scenes, in interrogations, or in shootouts. As a detective, you have to be critical and sharp-eyed to find evidence in the crime scenes. As an interrogator, you have to be good at reading people’s expressions to tell whether they lied or they told the truth. You are given a handgun and a notebook as your primary starter equipment.

L.A. Noire

To play L.A. Noire and survive to the end with high scores, you have to understand the rules. I will tell you the tips and tricks to get high ranks and master L.A. Noire, preventing you from messing up your playthroughs. Don’t worry, like I said before, no spoilers are going to be spoiled. Continue ahead, fellow readers!

Notebook is Mighty Crucial
Open the notebook and you can see the case’s progression. You can also look at datas like places you can travel to, evidences that you have found, and intuition points. Use the intuition points if you meet a dead end on where to find evidences in a certain area.

Your Partner is not a Bag of Dirt
In L.A. Noire, your pal is useful. Even though your pal is not a bag of dirt, don’t expect him to be smart. At least he is able to drive the car for you and tell you his boring opinions about the current condition. But, those boring opinions might prove to be helpful.

Keep your Ears Open
The voice-acting and the background music also sounds are are indeed fabulous. When you play L.A. Noire, listen to the sounds. When the music fades and disappears, it means the clues and evidences in that area are 100% discovered. There also different sound effects in interrogations that tell you whether your choice were right or wrong.

A Horny and Sireney Car
Activate the siren when you are in a chase. This will prevent you from crashing other vehicles and innocent pedestrians. The horn and siren is useful if you want to keep your rank good.

Eyes, Hands, Lips, Evidences
The key in interrogation is observation. Make sure you observe closely movements of lips, eyes, and hands. Sudden, unusual, fast movement is a sign. Before you are accusing someone of lying, check your notebook whether you have the evidence or not. Doubt if you don’t have enough evidence to back-up your offensive accusation.

Rockstar Games Social Club
If you want to check on your complete detailed progression and stats, sign up. You can link your account to the social club.

If you do those things in L.A. Noire, your playthroughs are bound to be successful. But, if you need specific help on something, don’t be shy to ask. Thanks for reading the tips and tricks of L.A. Noire!